Monsters, robots, explosions and destruction

Rating: 3/10 (3 October 2013)

Those are the undeniable ingredients for a blockbuster. It's what most people like, and this movie got it all.
I didn't know much about this film before I started to watch it, just that there were giant robots in it. Since I watched Robot Jox back in the day (can't believe its score here is less than 5!!), I've always thought that somebody should make a mecha film, and never really understood why it wasn't happening. The beginning of this movie is just like that, it gave me an enormous feeling of being watching Robot Jox again: the acting, the dialogue, the music, the atmosphere... it all reminded me of it. Then, it started to remind me of other movies as well: Godzilla, Evangelion, and even HellBoy. This is particularly interesting: the mood of the movie, like some sort of comic book rather than a live action, reminded me incredibly of HellBoy. Then, I saw Santiago Segura (which gave me a funny surprise) and, after the appearance of Ron Perlman, I knew this movie had something to do with Guillermo Del Toro. I swear I didn't have a clue who the director was, but these points were unmistakable. The end credits confirmed my suspicion. Now, this says a lot about Del Toro, since he can give his particular touch to anything, apparently. However, it also says how predictable and clichéd his movies are. Because, unfortunately, the points that made me think of this director even before I knew it was him behind the camera, are the same points that make me think of this movie as a worthless piece of cinematography. The same jokes, the adolescence feeling... It's a pity that Del Toro has to be linked to these characteristics, rather than other details that shined with originality in some of their other movies like Pan's Labyrinth or The Devil's Backbone. Oh, speaking of predictability, after 33 min into the movie, you will know how it will be ending. Seriously. After 1 hour, you may even be able to predict what will happen in the next scene.
Pacific Rim is the shallowest of movies. The whole point of it being simply using all and any instruments at the director's disposition to aid the showing off of hits, punches and so-called cool dialogue lines (nothing more than rancid clichés). The plot itself has sooooo many holes in it, each one of them the size of one of those giant robots. It's pointless to discuss them. This movie doesn't make any sense whatsoever. It's a flick to be enjoyed by people who has the capacity of leaving their minds blank (or who actually HAVE minds like that). For Pete's sake, we even get a harangue!
Pacific Rim made me feel the same as HellBoy 2 did: it seems a potpourri of this and that movie, these and those animated series, of rancid clichés and surrender-it-all to a grandiose FX's show of explosions and destruction. Is Del Toro becoming a new Michael Bay? I really hope not.
Alas, once again, IMDb's rating will be deceiving for an audience who expects more than absurd plots and puberty's amusements. I would have enjoyed this 20 years ago, maybe. Like I did enjoy Robot Jox then. Now, I can only see another piece for the children at heart (and mind).